The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued some new guides on XBRL intended to further refine how preparers use the U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy to submit their financial statements in the XBRL format.

FASB added three new pieces to its upstart series of implementation guides -- one focused on segment reporting and two more focused specifically on the insurance sector. The segment reporting guide demonstrates the modeling that FASB has in mind for disclosures related to segment reporting.

The modeling is completed using elements in the taxonomy, focusing on detail tagging only. It provides eight separate examples of common segment reporting disclosures, such as significant items of required segment information, reconciliation of segment revenue, and reconciliation of segment profit or loss. Further examples go into greater detail related to various common segment scenarios.

As with other guides in the series, FASB says the segment reporting examples are not intended to cover every possible modeling configuration or to dictate the appearance or structure of a company's extension taxonomy. The examples are only meant to help users of the taxonomy understand how the modeling for segment reporting is structured within the taxonomy, with the hope that it will drive more consistent use of the taxonomy to produce more consistent, comparable financial reporting data. The guide does not include elements for text blocks, policy text blocks, or table blocks. 

For the insurance sector, one guide focuses on the modeling of disclosures related to concentration of credit risk, as in ceded credit risk with a single credit rating, multiple credit ratings, and those that appear in more the one table. Another insurance guide focuses on disclosures related to reinsurance, providing a model for disclosing risk management objectives and retention policies, effects of reinsurance, and the supplemental schedule of reinsurance arrangements, although it does not cover concentrations of credit risk resulting from reinsurance.

FASB kicked off its series of implementation guides with an initial guide on subsequent events, or important events that occur after the end of a reporting period but before financial statements are published. The guide is meant to help taxonomy users understand how disclosures related to those events are structured within the taxonomy. Louise Matherne, chief of taxonomy development for FASB, has said the staff is open to feedback on the subsequent events guide in particular through April 12 as it continues to develop the series to further refine use of the taxonomy.